Projects

Endowment for Tomorrow

UP! A Celebration

Our Vision

“To carry the light of life to places now dark, the seeds of life to places now dead, and the eyes, hands and minds of humanity to places yet unseen, untouched and unknown.”

EarthLighters believe the purpose of living is to treasure and celebrate life, to explore everywhere that we can, to always push beyond what is known, to seek, to learn, to live and carry life with us where it does not exist, and experiencing all that can be seen, touched and known of this incredible universe.

Our Mission

To support the expansion of life and humanity beyond the Earth by creating, catalyzing and managing projects and activities that lead to public inspiration, education and action relating to space exploration and settlement – and to protect and expand the domain of life and humanity on this world by returning and applying the knowledge thus gained.

Our Goals

Defining and disseminating the Vision that we exist for the purpose of exploring and expanding humanity and the life of Earth beyond this one world.

Inspiring and educating students, citizens, governments and companies to become involved in scientific, cultural, technological and commercial projects that support space exploration and settlement as the central driver of a positive future for humanity.

Supporting and enabling the development of new ideas and concepts that enhance humanity’s exploration and development of space.

Applying the ideas and concepts developed to expand our domain beyond the Earth to protect and expand the domain of life on Earth itself.

Creating and expanding the toolkit necessary to make this endeavor unlimited over time, in the form of developing ever growing and self-generating human and financial resources.

We Shall Not Be Bound

The one necessary and sufficient reason we are called to the space frontier is buried deep within us. It is a feeling, a knowing in our hearts when we look starward on a clear night. The same feeling that some of our earliest ancestors had as they looked across a new valley, or stood upon the shores of unsailed oceans. First fear, then curiosity, and then, for some, a calling. A calling which pulls us to go, to see, to do, to be there. It has created us and we have always responded to it.

Vision, Action, Focus

As in any field, there are a myriad of other groups out there talking about space, doing space projects, holding events and advocating for this or that policy, goal, or destination. Everyone has their own ideas, approaches and goals. We endorse almost anything to do with the exploration and opening of space, astronomy or the study of all the universe has to offer in terms of pure scientific inquiry. We support the use of space for communications, energy and the harvest of space resources. But our core goal, the one goal we stand for and will not deviate from, is the expansion of life and humanity permanently into space. EarthLighters hold this above all other activities in space, and where they conflict our choice will be obvious. Just “doing space” is not sufficient for us. Just exploring space, though exciting and good, is not enough. To an EarthLighter, the universe is there to be not only seen, touched and understood, it is there to be our future home.

Homo Sapiens is a Frontier Creature.

It is what we do, it defines what we are. This has been true from our very beginnings. It is the core reason our progenitors wandered forth from the first primordial valleys in search of more room, better hunting, or more fertile soil. Often they traveled to escape the dominance of this or that tribal bully, or faced with over crowding, to find a place of their own. Each time this migration occurred far more stayed and endured than sought the new, but it was the new-seekers who changed the world, and in many ways created new worlds of their own.

While most remained as huddled masses, accepting of the powers that be, constrained by the limits of their time, stuck in the routines of mere survival, there has always been as small group who want more – those who are dissatisfied, who don’t fit in, who cannot accept the constraints of the status quo, who dream, or who simply want to “know” what is out there.

To these, the edge of the known did not represent danger, but opportunity. And each time they have stepped towards the edges of their world, they have been ridiculed, ostracized, even restrained at times by those whose “world order” was threatened. Yet somehow they always seem to break free, to break out – again, it is the human way – for we shall not be bound – be it by the restraints of smaller minds nor, in this case, gravity itself.